LifeBook Catch-Up Week 11: Inner and Outer World

Week 11 of Lifebook 2015 was brought to us by the one and only Jane Davenport. Her lesson featured a busy collage (symbolising our inner world) as part of a female figure. My figure didn't really work for me, so I made some changes to my page. At one point, I was going to discard the entire page, but I'm glad I managed to save it. I really don't like giving up on something that I already put a lot of effort into.

My page started out OK - I really liked the collage I made with gelli prints and elements cut out of napkins and tissue paper. Because of the colourful gelli prints that I used for the background, I chose some neutral images, which worked quite well on top of the prints. I also added some black stamp marks. I was very happy with my background and more than a little reluctant to cover it up. Luckily, I have some photos to remember it by! I even took some close-ups.

Two gelli prints collaged on a sheet of watercolour paper

Collage elements added from napkins and tissue paper, plus stamping

Now the more difficult part! I had to sketch a female figure on top of all this yumminess, masking the "outer world" with gesso, and leaving the collage visible for the female figure only, symbolising her inner world.  Jane's figure was all curvy, feminine and full of movement, but I didn't manage to achieve that effect. Mine just looked odd, so I had to make some changes. There wasn't much I could do because I had already gessoed over the page. But I managed to come up with a more static design (though I'm sure Jane would cringe at the stiff neck, LOL!) I softened the stiffness with the little bird sitting on her shoulder! A little whimsy can save a page! So here it is in all its glory and stiffness! I added a quote to minimize the empty space on the left. The bird is probably my favourite part of this and if you want to be philosophical, you could say that my inner world spilled into my outer world bringing some brightness and whimsy with it!